Week 6.2: Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, The Influencing Machine

Reading:
Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, The Influencing Machine, 103-complete
Invention Exercises


Study Questions:
1. What is the difference between journalistic objectivity and journalistic disclosure? What caused these various journalistic styles to emerge?

2. At the end of the book, Gladstone tells us, "Our limits are purely human. Our enemies are not the digital bits that dance across our screens but the neural impulses that animate our lizard brains. We get the media we deserve" (155-6). What does she mean by this? Use evidence from earlier in today's reading to justify your answers.

Week 6.1: Brooke Gladstone and Johsn Neufeld, The Influencing Machine

This week we will begin our current event project. The directions for this assignment have already been passed out in class and can be found along with the paper assignment descriptions on the website. The purpose of this assignment is three fold:

1) Reading a newspaper is important to being a well-informed citizen. The chart above details both political biases of major news sources in the United States while also evaluating their journalistic integrity. As you know from today's reading, political bias is just one type of bias in journalism and Gladstone does not think it to be the most influential. Nonetheless, it is worth considering in conjunction with journalistic quality. In order to be well-informed citizen who is capable of making rational decisions, you must know what is going on in the world and you must be able to consider where this information is coming from.

2) Our second paper will be focusing on The Influencing Machine and its explanation of the news media. While you are not required to reference the news reports you have read for this paper, it is important to consider her ideas in reference to actual media reports. In our final portfolio assignment, you will incorporate parts of the second paper but you will have to cite directly from the news stories you have read.

3) Our final exam will ask you to take a stand on a contemporary issue of public importance. Being well-informed on these issues will help you make a stronger argument. Taken collectively, thirty percent of your grade is tied to doing the current event project.

Reading:
Brooke Gladstone and Johsn Neufeld, The Influencing Machine, 57-102
Current Event Assignment Part 1 (upload to turnitin.com)

Study Questions:
1. In your own words, define the various types of journalistic bias that Gladstone identifies in The Influencing Machine.


2. Look closely at the story you selected for today's current event assignment. How do the types of bias Gladstone identifies influence the story you've selected?

Week 5.2: Brooke Gladstone and Johsn Neufeld, The Influencing Machine

Reading:
Brooke Gladstone and Josh Neufeld, The Influencing Machine, xi-56

Study Questions:
1. According to Gladstone, are the media an influencing machine? Read carefully.


2. Gladstone writes, "We slip back but we recover our footing. The media exposure corruption and build pressure for change -- but the government still has the loudest voice. So when seizing up White House assertions . . . Take the advice of the president who sized up Kremlin assertions . . . 'Trust but verify.' . . . embrace this truth from one of journalism's greatest skeptics. "All government's lie." . . . and accept that there's no free ride in democracy. 'The price of freedom is eternal vigilance'" (33). Use the material from pages 3-32 to support Gladstone's conclusions.